Autumn Flame Painting

As a professional photographer I travel often to the islands of northern Scotland to make my images in places that provoke a profound emotional reaction. The colours, the textures, the wildness of the places and the history are all intertwined in a fascinating, and often bewildering melting pot of sensation that forces me to make art. After moving many times to get to where I should be, I now live on top of a cliff at the northern end of the Isle of Skye. Skye is a large and very beautiful island in the far north of Scotland; a place of inspiration, myth and legend. The beauty of the landscape draws artists and walkers, photographers and lovers of Nature like a magnet, and I am likewise smitten. Skye has a ruggedness and intense green hills that would make anyone pick up a camera or a paintbrush. My work has moved through variations on a theme of movement and colour. Whether the camera moves or I move or the landscape moves it is all the same. Colours, moving blending and soaking into one another create a sense of playfulness, the feeling you get when the wind is in your hair on a bright sunny day. More and more I wonder if there is any end to how one can capture the colours, the lines and the essence of a place. In my studio today, the bright green Hill of the Red Fox is shrouded in a light mist, the wind is howling and the clouds are moving quickly across the hills. It is a scene that makes my heart sing. I hope my work conveys some of the joy I feel when I see these colours, the harmony and the wind singing through it all. It is at least a quest that, hopefully, will last a lifetime.